GRAVITY

Official Trailer analysis 

The trailer begins simplistically with a black screen and white text: ‘at 372 miles above the earth…’ to initially introduce the film to the audience and allude to what we are about to see. The first scene proceeds depicting chaos through the mise-en-scene of outer space and an astronaut who is fighting for her life as she spins out of safety. The camerawork is hand-held and shaky to emulate the astronaut’s fast-paced rotation through space and later zooms closer onto her face to present her panic-stricken face. The tension is heightened through the non-diegetic string instrumental alongside the diegetic sound of a man shouting instructions: ‘listen to my voice’ and sirens to convey distress to the audience and create empathy. The camera zooms close in onto the woman’s lower stomach where she detaches her belt from the last on the spaceship as the sound of the air pressure increases and she flies backwards as she screams. The sudden black screen and silence is successful in cutting the built tension. 

The ‘Warner Bros. Pictures’ logo fades in quickly then fades out into a collection of quick cuts accompanied by loud celestial white noise: inside the spaceship, close shot of her gloves. The extremely wide shot of her body flying rapidly through space with earth behind to establish her visually makes her appeal insignificant and small against her threatening situation. The hand-held, spinning camera tracking the protagonist forces the audience to feel nauseated such as she and fear for her life. The diegetic exclaimed dialogue: ‘I’m detached, yes I’m spinning’, ‘you need to focus, give me coordinates’ which later descends into her heavy breathing and panting creates unease. The increasing volume of the dramatic instrumental underneath the diegetic sound is overpowering and emulates the protagonist’s anxiety. The editing and the camerawork of the extreme close up and the fading in and out of blackness imitates the astronauts consciousness. For a second time, all sound comes to a halt and the screen fades into black. Diegetic sound of gasps for air are synched to the opening credits of the director. More quick cuts follow this: falling through space, falling into satellite, crashing, photo frame of family, fire etc complemented by a voice over of the female protagonist explaining her backstory to create context for the audience. In between the fast cuts of action, the audience is finally introduced to the main actors: ‘Sandra Bullock, ‘George Clooney’. As the trailer comes to end, the astronaut is reaching her death. The suspense reaches a breaking point with diegetic sound of grunting, screaming, non-diegetic sound of dramatic music and visuals of big machinery crushing her body as the audience fear for her life. The sound stops suddenly as ‘Gravity’ spells out, followed by the release date to inform the audience. The trailer is successful in engaging an audience interested in adventure and thriller by using film codes to create suspense.